As researchers try to piece together Carl Webb’s life, it has been revealed his older brother — who bore a striking resemblance to the Somerton Man — died a prisoner of war.
Key points:
Researchers have named the Somerton Man as Carl Webb
A military photo of his brother Roy has a strong resemblance to the Somerton Man
He also had the same eye color as the Somerton Man
Last week, University of Adelaide researcher Derek Abbott made a breakthrough in the case that has baffled detectives for decades, identifying the mysterious Somerton Man as Melbourne electrical engineer Carl “Charles” Webb.
Carl Webb’s birth certificate shows he was born on November 16, 1905, in Footscray and had five older siblings named Russell, Freda, Gladys, Doris and Roy.
According to his service record, held by the National Archives of Australia, Roy Webb enlisted in the Australian military in July 1940 and served in the 2/29th Battalion.
The man dubbed the “Somerton Man” was found dead on an Adelaide beach in 1948.
He became one of the many causalities of World War II in 1943.
When he joined the army, he was 35 years old, living in Carnegie with his wife Ruby and working as a “car driver”.
His record states he disembarked in Singapore on August 23, 1941, and was reported missing in February 1942 before being confirmed as a prisoner of war in Malaya in September 1943.
Roy Webb’s will, which is included in the archives, was witnessed by his sister Freda Keane and her husband Gerald Keane, of East Brunswick, Victoria, in 1940.
“T Keane” was found printed on some of the Somerton Man’s personal belongings. (Supplied: Derek Abbott)
Gerald Keane’s full name was Thomas Gerald Keane and the Somerton Man was found with “T Keane” printed on his tie.
Keane was also found printed on other personal items in a suitcase that was uncovered in the cloakroom of the Adelaide Railway Station in January 1949.
It had been checked in the day before an unidentified man’s body was discovered on Somerton Beach in January 1948, and police suspected it belonged to him.
Professor Abbott believes Carl Webb’s clothes were hand-me-downs from his brother-in-law, who lived just 20 minutes’ drive from his home in Melbourne.
Mystery has surrounded the identity of the Somerton Man for decades. (Supplied: Derek Abbott)
Professor Abbott said the photo of Roy Webb in his service record revealed a resemblance between the two brothers.
“It appears to be a reasonable resemblance,” he said.
“The general shape of the face is the same, the hair line is the same.”
Roy Webb’s eye color is listed as hazel, the same as The Somerton Man’s.
Wednesday is your chance to ask the experts how they cracked the Somerton Man case — and why it has attracted so much attention. Join our live Q&A blog from 12pm AEST.
A breakthrough in one of Australia’s most enduring mysteries — the case of the Somerton Man — last week saw the previously unidentified man named as Melbourne electrical engineer Carl “Charles” Webb.
The case had baffled detectives and amateur sleuths since the 43-year-old’s body was found slumped on Adelaide’s Somerton Beach in 1948.
University of Adelaide professor Derek Abbott made the breakthrough while working in conjunction with US investigator Colleen Fitzpatrick, after decades of independently researching the case.
This week is your chance to ask the experts how they cracked the Somerton Man case — and why it has attracted so much attention. Join our live Q&A blog from 12pm AEST on Thursday.
What do we know about Carl “Charles” Webb so far?
November 1905
Carl Webb is born on November 16, 1905, in Footscray to Richard August Webb (1866-1939) and Eliza Amelia Morris Grace (1871-1946).
Documents show his father was born in Hamburg, Germany, to Johannes Fredk Webb and Eliz Buck and his profession was a baker.
According to his birth certificate, his mother was born in Percydale, Victoria, and Carl was the couple’s sixth child.
His siblings are listed as Russell, 12, Freda, nine, Gladys, eight, Doris, four, and Roy, one.
October 1941
Carl Webb marries Dorothy Jean Robertson on October 4, 1941, at St Matthews church in Prahran, Victoria.
Their marriage certificate lists Carl Webb as a 35-year-old instrument maker and Dorothy Robertson as a 21-year-old foot specialist.
The couple live on Domain Road in South Yarra.
A suitcase with this luggage tag was left at Adelaide Station in 1948 and was connected to the Somerton Man mystery.(Supplied: Caroline Billsborrow)
November 1948
On November 30, 1948 — the day before his body was found — the Somerton Man bought a bus ticket and caught a bus from the railway station to Somerton Beach.
According to the coronial inquiry, a number of people saw him on the beach that day.
December 1948
On December 1, 1948, a man’s body is found slumped against a wall under the esplanade at Somerton Beach.
He was wearing a brown suit, had a clean-shaven face and appeared to be about 40 years old.
He had a half-smoked cigarette on his lapel and, according to a newspaper report, his legs were crossed.
He is found with a few personal items including two combs, a box of matches, a used bus ticket to the area, an unused second-class train ticket, a packet of chewing gum and cigarettes.
A post-mortem finds the man had a “stinkingly” enlarged spleen and internal bleeding in the stomach and liver.
The coroner concludes the death resulted from poison.
The personal items found inside a suitcase believed to belong to the mysterious Somerton Man. (Supplied)
January 1949
A suitcase believed to belong to the mystery man is found at Adelaide Railway Station.
It contains an assortment of his belongings including a shaving brush, a knife in a sheath and boot polish.
Some of his clothes have the tags removed and others, including his tie, had T Keane printed on them.
The scrap of paper found in the Somerton Man’s fob pocket with the Persian words “Tamam Shud”.(Supplied: Professor Derek Abbott)
May 1949
A tiny rolled-up piece of paper inscribed with the words “Tamam Shud” is found hidden deep in the fob pocket of the man’s trousers.
The torn paper is later traced back to a book of ancient Persian poetry, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which had been left in the back seat of a car near where the body was found.
The words roughly translate to “the end” or “the finish”, and the poems touch on themes including the need to live life to the fullest and having no regrets when it ends.
June 1949
Coroner Thomas Erskine Cleland begins the inquest into the Somerton Man’s death on June 17, 1949.
The inquest is added four days later with no answers to who the mystery man is or what caused his death.
The torn final page of a copy of Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyám, a 12th-century poet. (Supplied: Carolyn Billsborrow )
July 1949
A copy of The Rubaiyat with the page containing “Tamam Shud” torn out is handed in to the police on July 22, 1949, by a man who says he found it in the back of his car in November 1948.
The book contains a sequence of letters and a couple of telephone numbers.
Jessie ‘Jo’ Thomson was interviewed by police in July 1949.(Supplied: Professor Derek Abbott)
One of the telephone numbers belongs to a nurse called Jessie Thomson, who lives just hundreds of meters from where the body was found.
In July 1949, police interview Jessie Thomson but she denies knowing the Somerton Man.
October 1951
On October 5, 1951, Dorothy Webb puts a public notice in The Age newspaper in Melbourne, publicizing that she had started divorce proceedings against her husband on the ground of “desertion”.
“Unless you enter an appearance in the Prothonotary’s Office of the Supreme Court of Melbourne on or before the 29th day of October, 1951 the case may proceed in your absence and you may be ordered to pay costs,” the ad states.
The public notice published in The Age newspaper on October 5, 1951.(Source: Trove)
During this time, Dorothy Webb relocated to Bute on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula.
It is not clear what led her to the country town or how long she lived there.
Descendants of her sister have told Professor Abbott she remarried and died in the late 1990s in New South Wales.
November 2013
Jessie Thomson’s daughter, Kate Thomson, reveals her mother told her she knew the identity of the Somerton Man.
“She said to me she knew who he was, but she wasn’t going to let that out of the bag,” Kate Thomson tells current affairs program 60 Minutes.
The Somerton Man was buried in Adelaide’s West Terrace cemetery. (Australian Story: Ben Cheshire)
November 2020
An artist’s impression of what the Somerton Man would have looked like is released by Canadian cinematographer Daniel Voshart.
The only images previously available were unflattering black-and-white post-mortem photographs and a death mask of his face and upper torso.
The virtual-reality specialist worked with researcher Derek Abbott and genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick to create the impression.
Canadian special effects artist Daniel Voshart recreates the Somerton Man’s face. (Image: Daniel Voshart)
May 2021
South Australian police exhume the Somerton Man’s remains from Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery in the hope that DNA samples will solve the case.
Previous police investigations and a coronial inquest left the matter unresolved, with hundreds of candidates being identified and then ruled out over the years.
May 2022
University of Adelaide researcher Derek Abbott and American genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick announce that they believe the Somerton Man’s name is Carl “Charles” Webb.
They arrived at the result by comparing DNA from hair stuck in a plaster bust of the man’s head with samples uploaded by millions of people around the world in online databases used to create family trees.
The match is yet to be formally confirmed by South Australia’s coroner, but Professor Abbott says he is 99.9 per cent confident they have correctly identified the Somerton Man.
A coincidental link between the Somerton Man and the professor who claims to have uncovered his identity has emerged, as previously held theories are debunked.
Key points:
Adelaide researcher Derek Abbott says the Somerton Man is Charles Webb
The enduring mystery of the man’s identity has baffled authorities for 70 years
In a bizarre coincidence, Professor Abbott and Charles Webb share the same occupation
Adelaide researcher Derek Abbott has been working on the Somerton Man case — one of Australia’s longest-running mysteries — for decades.
Last week he announced DNA and forensic genealogy had unearthed the unidentified man found slumped on an Adelaide beach in December 1948 as Carl “Charles” Webb, a 43-year-old Victorian electrical engineer and instrument maker.
In making the breakthrough, Professor Abbott has also ruled out his own theory: that his wife was the man’s granddaughter.
Decades of research has created deeply personal links for Professor Abbott, who met his now wife, Rachel Egan, through his investigations.
Rachel Egan and Derek Abbott at the grave of Somerton Man.(Australian Story: Ben Cheshire )
Professor Abbott wrote to Ms Egan, asking to meet after discovering she shared multiple links with the Somerton Man.
In addition to her biological grandmother’s phone number being found among the Somerton Man’s possessions, Professor Abbott also found her biological father shared two rare genetic anomalies with the man.
The pair quickly fell in love, married and went on to have three children.
But the link that brought them together has now been ruled out.
“We’ve also been able to now eliminate suspected possibilities in the past … including the one that my wife is related to the Somerton Man,” Professor Abbott told the ABC last week.
“[We] can totally rule that out now, her DNA does not match at all.”
The unknown man was found at an Adelaide beach in 1948.(Supplied: Derek Abbott)
But in a bizarre twist, another link between the family has been discovered.
Professor Abbott and Charles Webb share the same occupation of electrical engineers.
“That’s a coincidence, there’s lots of coincidences,” Professor Abbott said.
The public notice published in The Age newspaper on October 5, 1951. (Source: Trove)
In 1951, Mr Webb’s wife Dorothy Jean Webb put a public notice in The Age newspaper in Melbourne, publicizing that she had started divorce proceedings against her husband on the ground of “desertion”.
“Unless you enter an appearance in the Prothonotary’s Office of the Supreme Court of Melbourne on or before the 29th day of October, 1951 the case may proceed in your absence and you may be ordered to pay costs,” the ad states.
Their marriage certificate shows that Carl Webb and Dorothy Jean Robertson were married on October 4, 1941 at St Matthews in Prahran.
At the time, Mr Webb was 35 years old and his wife 21.
According to the certificate, the couple lived on Domain Road in South Yarra.
An excavator in Adelaide’s West Terrace cemetery works on the exhumation of the Somerton Man’s remains in May last year.(ABC News: Michael Clements)
Professor Abbott’s research into the case has been conducted separately from a police investigation, which included an exhumation last year with the Somerton Man’s remains taken from an Adelaide grave to a Forensic Science SA lab in the hope of harvesting DNA.
In a statement on Wednesday, SA Police said they were still “actively investigating” the coronial matter.
“We are heartened of the recent development in that case, and are cautiously optimistic that this may provide a breakthrough,” it said.
“We look forward to the outcome of further DNA work to confirm the identification which will ultimately be determined by the coroner.”
Professor Abbott said he will continue to “take an interest” in the case, as more questions needed to be answered about the man’s life and death.
“It’s not the end of the story by any means,” he said.
“Finding his name is really just the beginning of the story because now we’ve got to find out more about this man and his history and what he was doing and fill in all the gaps.”
